Description

REAPER is a powerful Windows application for multitrack recording and editing of audio. It will accept avi, mpg or wmv files & give you a video preview, thus enabling you to mix extra tracks in with your source audio!. You cannot perform any video editing within Reaper, but you can work on the soundtrack. You can edit the existing soundtrack, and/or add create new tracks and media items to be mixed with it.

I learned on ProTools, and by ProTools 10, I became so frustrated with the 'glitches, crashes, lack of features, inability to do power functions, etc...' that I began a quest to test the rest. I sampled Ableton, Logic, Digital Performer, even Bitwig. I didn't find any of them convincingly different to convert me from ProTools, so I then decided to try some Freeware applications in an attempt to maybe record with a more basic program, and do my finishing work in ProTools. Again, nothing really convinced me to change my workflow. I continued using ProTools 10 through 2014 as I didn't want to spend a ton of cash on an upgrade knowing I was about to jump ship. Then, in 2015 I just happened to come across Reaper. I didn't think much about it prior, thinking it must surely be a buggy outlier, something only fanatic fan-boys used because it was cheap. I figured because the price to own was so low, and it spent $0 on advertising, it must be an amateur product.... BOY, WAS I EVER WRONG!!!! Not only was I an immediate convert, I am now one of those fan-boys, spreading the gospel of Reaper everywhere I go.

First off, a complete DAW that doesn't rival the big boys, but actually obliterates the big boys in terms of being able to do ANYTHING you want it to do in a 60MB footprint is an insane concept. Rock solid. The only time Reaper ever crashes is when a plug-in crashes, and Reaper is 100x better about averting a plug-in crash than ProTools. The responsiveness is unparalleled. Again, the program itself opens in less than 2 seconds. If I have twelve projects opened to start, the plug-ins take all the time to load. The fact that I can have twenty projects opened at once, with hundreds of tracks and plug-ins loaded in EACH project is a testament to its stability. Try doing that in any other DAW, with a lag of only 2 to 5 seconds switching between projects. Routing abilities is almost infinite, controlling automation with everything from MIDI, to OSC, to audio side-channeling is incredibly powerful and a cinch to set up. While the simplicity of the program does make some actions seem less than intuitive, relying on action commands, scripts, or even programmable macros, the free instruction manual is a power guide at almost 500 pages, and the community is AMAZING in their willingness to help answer any question. You do not just buy a DAW with REAPER, you join a new paradigm in community support. Every update in the 5.xx series has been chock full of advanced features, now bringing video sync, notation editor in the MIDI functions, spectral graphing, web-controlled interfaces for live-settings or remote recording (from your phone!). All the meanwhile, staying at around 60MB fully installed.

CONS - there are a few DigiDesign hardware incompatibilities with REAPER. There are a few older consoles and PCI boards that AVID just won't allow compatibility for anything other than ProTools. This is not the fault of REAPER in any manner, but it is something to investigate. Luckily, you can evaluate REAPER with full functionality for 30 days to see if any errors pop up. The MIDI editing is not as geared towards loop production as Ableton Live or FL Studios, but if that is the main purpose of your DAW needs, there are already three or four programs out there designed specifically for that function. I have rewired FL Studio through REAPER, and have done loop production that way, choosing to bounce the finished product back in to REAPER. There are third-party extensions to give REAPER these abilities natively as well. Other than these two major concerns, if they are applicable to your situation, just about any other drawback can be worked around, and the pros far outweigh the few limitations.

A multi-track audio editor packing incredible number of features into a small download. Actively developed and supported on the official forum. The program is so intuitive, given an accumulated experience with other audio editors, that it doesn't need a help-file, which isn't provided, I imagine, because it would take too much effort to keep it current.

Nevertheless, nearly every option in the Preferences dialog is explained in a clear short sentence, which appears right on the program interface without opening resource intensive external programs, or requiring the user to skim through lengthy text. Functions in the dialog are also directly searchable, without needing to search the docs, and then following them to find the required button.

None of the above uses any bulky html/metro/net bloat. Where possible, the program makes use of Windows controls to draw the interface. The whole preferences dialog is very fast to scroll through. So the other comment about Win 3.11 isn't justified. Reaper did receive a major UI update of the skinnable parts once. But it is still possible to load the skin from verison 2 in the current v4 and continue using the familiar layout.

Reaper has codecs for practical, useful open file formats, there is a powerful batch converter (also with built-in help), which allows to use any installed DirectShow or VST (more reliable) effect. Reaper can load MIDI files, and unlike with sophisiticated editors, this process seems "lossless" (events aren't rearranged), and sometimes the reason why a file doesn't sound right can be found and manually corrected.

Later versions add video support through ffmpeg. But I've never found it to be precise or stable enough to be of any use for syncing. Reaper is not a sample-exact cut-and-paste editor; and doesn't replace Sound Forge for sound, nor Cakewalk Pro Audio for MIDI. It's a DAW works on a clip level.

If u use reaper and see its functionality, it seems to me that the other stalwarts like steingberg and presonus or other big names of the audio industry seems to be fooling the general public in the name of high-end products.

Explanation:NEW SOFTWARE= New tool since your last visitNEW VERSION= New version since your last visitNEW REVIEW= New review since your last visitNEW VERSION= New version

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Download 15MB = A direct link to the software download.Win = Windows download version. It works on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.Win64 = Windows 64-bit download version. It works only on 64-bit Windows.Mac = Mac download version. It works on 32-bit and 64-bit Mac OS.Mac64 = Mac OS download version. It works only on 64-bit Mac OS.Linux = Linux download version. Portable = Portable version. No installation is required. Ad-Supported = The software is bundled with advertising. Be careful when you install the software and disable addons that you don't want!
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